What is your Greatest Struggle?

Market Insights

The purpose of a community is to support an uplift each other. I find one of the best ways to do this is through sharing struggles. By sharing what issues we face and what steps we are taking to overcome them, we all benefit and grow.

So tell me, what is your greatest struggle and what steps are you taking to overcome it.

For me the biggest thing is discipline. While I have been forward testing my system (demo) for a year or so, and the last 3-6 months doing it live on a micro account I still have problems of staying disciplined in my setups, either closing out too early for a loss that would have been a win or waiting too long to close a winner.

It is widely accepted that all (self) trading is only small part system and most part mental discipline. A good trader.. one who has a rule based system and the discipline to follow it will make money on most systems that have a positive probability and win/loss ratio. Instead we obsess about indicators and stop losses and broker scams, these aspects keep us from dealing with the main issue. Two guys who focus on this issue are authors Mark Douglas and Van Tharp, both offer valuable insight into how to trade sharpening the mind. I suggest some Deepak Chopra also.

Once you work on this, your home life and trading will improve dramatically and the fog will disappear. Van Tharp says that "We get out of trading what we are looking for (approx)".. its a chilling sentence for all those who have the insight to understand it...... everyone else just carry on looking for the next best thing to make themselves easy profits. Trading is a microcosm of the Matrix film theme, once you plug into the grid it keeps you amused and focused away from the real issues.

How quickly we get off topic. Let me see if I can redirect this thread back to its indented purpose.

As a young trader one of the greatís struggles I faced was overconfidence. Sometimes I laugh when I think about it because I had absolutely no business being overconfident. The same scenario seemed to play out again and again in my trading.

I would begin cautiously, carefully planning my trades and cautious about protecting my capital. I would do well, and would manage to string together a number of winning trades. I would watch my account balance grow and along with it my confidence.

What fallowed next is all too common. I would begin to neglect my planning and analysis. I would become less cautious, taking out positions that no longer fit my risk management strategy. Then I would hit a series of losing trades. Under normal conditions this would present nothing more than a normal draw down in my trading system. But because I was now overleveraged and overconfident, my account suffered greatly.

This process typically sent me into an emotional spiral. I could no longer make rational decisions inside the market. Eventually, the money was gone, the account was empty and I was back to questioning whether or not I could really do this job.

The story does have a happy ending though. By taking personal responsibility of my trading losses and poor decisions I found that emotion was the key contributor to my failure. I worked hard on my trader psychology and have been a success ever since.

How quickly we get off topic. Let me see if I can redirect this thread back to its indented purpose.

As a young trader one of the greatís struggles I faced was overconfidence. Sometimes I laugh when I think about it because I had absolutely no business being overconfident. The same scenario seemed to play out again and again in my trading.

I would begin cautiously, carefully planning my trades and cautious about protecting my capital. I would do well, and would manage to string together a number of winning trades. I would watch my account balance grow and along with it my confidence.

What fallowed next is all too common. I would begin to neglect my planning and analysis. I would become less cautious, taking out positions that no longer fit my risk management strategy. Then I would hit a series of losing trades. Under normal conditions this would present nothing more than a normal draw down in my trading system. But because I was now overleveraged and overconfident, my account suffered greatly.

This process typically sent me into an emotional spiral. I could no longer make rational decisions inside the market. Eventually, the money was gone, the account was empty and I was back to questioning whether or not I could really do this job.

The story does have a happy ending though. By taking personal responsibility of my trading losses and poor decisions I found that emotion was the key contributor to my failure. I worked hard on my trader psychology and have been a success ever since.

Tell me your story.

ForexGuy

Its like you were a mind reader writing my story, I went through exactly what you have just described:) Gosh it was so frustrating

Yep, same problem here. Worse, I happened to start FX trading during the summer, when the A team was on vacation. With a few indicators and some focus, I was minting (virtual) money! It seemed so easy... 90% accuracy was not uncommon for me in those heady days.

Then, the real traders got back from vacation and boom -- nothing was easy anymore. Oops!

It took me a while to adjust, but I have completely changed my strategy. Instead of manual trading, I now use EAs I have written based on systems gleaned from various FX forums. Sometimes I step in, but only when the EAs need a little help. It's working pretty well for now (knock on wood).

Overall, I think the hardest thing about trading is learning when NOT to trade. When volatility is high, you need more margin to survive the draw down, as SLs must be set further in the red. Otherwise, you just get stopped out on transient spikes, even if your basic trade is sound. My approach to that is to observe several pairs and select the ones that have a certain "Goldilocks" look -- not too quiet, but not too volatile. Then, the EAs (and even I) have a better chance to trade in the black.

The other thing I do is have EAs trading multiple currencies at once. This minimizes the effect of price patterns the EAs don't do well with. Every EA seems to have its Achilles heel market, but it is less likely that several currency pairs will exhibit this behavior at the same time.

It has been the long time since i have noticed any sort of struggle for me, time has come to make big money as i am starting my new business with lots of dedication.

I'm also got struggle in first time trading, but i can improve my skill and now i can withdraw some dollar from trade with Liteforex, FBS, and some other broker. I like Liteforex due to its credibility among the traders in around the world. they are best...

I'm also got struggle in first time trading, but i can improve my skill it will make money on most systems that have a positive probability and win/loss ratio. Instead we obsess about indicators and stop losses and broker scams, This minimizes the effect of price patterns the EAs don't do well with. Every EA seems to have its Achilles heel market,

My greatest struggle was when I have started with trading. It was really hard as I am still learning. I have been learning ever since and I am still studying with how to make trading works to be successful. Later on, I am getting used on how the market works and still getting good results.

Awesome post ForexGuy. Without struggling hard, no-one here should think you can accomplish any success, whether that be in trading or anything in life actually. There is no short cut to sucess in forex trading.

The biggest issue is finding time to trade, because there is work, there are family, friends, other hobbies, so lets be frank, a few hours a day for forex trading is to be blunt - a luxury for most people. And herein lies the problem.